WJC: 2025 Team Canada Roster Talk

[Statsy]

Not having Yakemchuk and Cristall on this roster is criminal. Schaefer has great potential but I'm not bringing a 17 yr old dman except for very rare exceptions.

This is a rare exception. Schaefer is pretty awesome.

 

[TheYardMachine]

Not having Yakemchuk and Cristall on this roster is criminal. Schaefer has great potential but I'm not bringing a 17 yr old dman except for very rare exceptions.

Schaefer is looking pretty special so far imo

 

[JackSlater]

Call me crazy, but these PP units seem awful.

They just seem random, or lazy in that one unit is their initial first line. The second posted unit makes some sense at least.

Second hardest loss of my life. We freakin' had it!

I was in the arena for that one. What a time to be alive. I am 2/2 in world junior gold medal games where Canada blows a lead to Russia in the third period.

Is Easton Cowan this years recepaient of the Fraser Minten over utilisation award? I get he had a good year in London last year but he had a pretty anonymous tournament and has done nothing internationally to show he deserves first line minutes, first PP

TSN definitely seems to be overhyping him but there are a number of issues with those units. I could see Nadeau being over-utilized as well, as he plays PROFESSIONAL hockey... as we will be reminded many times. And of course Howe. Who knows though, they may be great. I'm also not sure that Minten deserves to be the namesake for that prestigious title over Joe Hicketts.

 

[DuklaNation]

This is a rare exception. Schaefer is pretty awesome.

He isn't a top PP QB at this stage, good 5 on 5.

 

[Statsy]

He isn't a top PP QB at this stage, good 5 on 5.

That's my one concern about him. This comes back to the Parekh situation in as much as when you REALLY need a powerplay goal, it's best to have an elite PP pointman.

 

[DuklaNation]

That's my one concern about him. This comes back to the Parekh situation in as much as when you REALLY need a powerplay goal, it's best to have an elite PP pointman.

Yakemchuk was carving up NHL guys in preseason plus has NHL caliber point shot. You take him for that reason.

 

[SpoolCat]

There's been a lot of discussion of the grinder role and young players and its interesting to me. Every year around this time I read road to gold by Mark Spector and 30 years of the game at its best edited by Gare Joyce both obviously about the world juniors. Its just insane the emphasis both these books put on playing your role and grinding it out. They almost with glee talk about when stars aren't invited or cut Al MacInnis, Gary Roberts or Patrick Roy are mentioned. In the 1999 chapter they tell us about how the team wasn't the most skilled and then mention they cut 5 first rounders. Then 2 paragraphs later talk about being shut out by Slovakia. Like maybe they would have been able to score with a few of those first rounders. Keep in mind that team didn't even win. There's a quote from Barry Trapp a former Hockey Canada head scout saying he would much rather have a player with high character with less skill vs a highly skilled player with less character.
As for young players its mentioned over and over they don't play as already mentioned Scott Niedermeyer, Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza and Jay Bouwmeester. Meanwhile we have a whole chapter about how great Mike Zigomanis was as 13th forward.
It just goes show that these debates we've been having are old. Hockey Canada does things their way and it appears its very hard for them to change. In some ways we've seen this Nadeau being allowed to play despite missing camp is a big one. Finally making the roster larger is another one. I thought after Bedard and Celebrini we would continue to see young players having more of a chance but maybe or maybe not regarding Schaefer's usage vs McKenna.
Obviously Hockey Canada has won the most gold medals. But I just keep wondering about what Mathieuferkland said about did we win because of Bedard or the grinders? How many tournaments can we ask this about? With all that being said I'm rooting for the boys and hopefully they can pull out the gold.

 

[1Gold Standard]

It's the most wonderful time of the year.... (to make a billion dollars)

Pre-tournament games are starting...so, get comfy, get your snacks and settle in....for our favorite tournament like no other.

 

[Mathieukferland]

But I just keep wondering about what Mathieuferkland said about did we win because of Bedard or the grinders?

I have a clear memory of all the tournaments 2010 onwards; the teams that have won since, I would put it down to these factors


2015

1. The best top 9 in the tournament that came at teams in waves, complimented nicely by a big 4th line that beat down the Werenskis, the Provorovs, etc.
2. A top 4 defence that is amongst the best Canada has ever had, and could take the puck from back to front and keep chances to the outside. As much as I can remember, the only real way to get to this team was to score off the rush
3. Benoît Groulx took the chains off and trusted his best players to win puck battles; it led to rush opportunities against, but 3 guys hard on the forecheck below the dots is extremely aggressive but Groulx trusted the skill of his players to possess the puck and win stick battles low


2018

1. Truth be told Canada lucked out this year with an easy path to the gold medal game (Switzerland, Czech). This was not a very good team and they got fortunate to avoid any of the big countries until the final
2. Carter Hart played the best I think I’ve seen from a Canadian goaltender in this tournament. Under siege at times against the US and Sweden, his explosiveness and acrobatics really shined through and kept Canada in the gold medal game.
3. For all his failings, it’s clear Dominique Ducharme knows how to get mediocre teams to finals in tournament settings. His team collapsed in the defensive zone and held on against a barrage of shots, yet with Hart in net he probably knew that if they could keep most of the shots to 20 feet out or more, that he wasn’t going to let in any muffins.

2020
1. The brilliance of Lafrenière in the games against the USA and the quarter and semifinal was a big reason why Canada was able to get to the final. Extremely physical for a skilled player, he set the tone with his skill and physical play.

2. Joel Hofer replaced Dawes after the Russia game and played extremely steady. Nothing brilliant, but stopped all the shots he was supposed to after Dawes put Canada into full panic mode after his collapse against the Russians.

3. Cozens and McMichael provided Canada with a secondary scoring matchup nightmare for other countries, as teams game planning around Lafrenière did not really have the personnel further down the lineup to deal with these two.


2022 summer

1. I’ll give Cameron where credit is due, he rode McTavish into the ground in the medal rounds. Had him out in every situation and had him playing every crucial minute. McTavish rewarded his trust with an MVP performance

2. A power play that was unstoppable. Between Johnson, Stankoven, Bédard, Zellweger and McTavish, this group was mercurial. Came up with big goals throughout the tournament.

3. Secondary scoring that came up clutch in the medal round. Stankoven and Johnson upped their play noticeably from thr Switzerland game onwards, their most notable contribution being of course their combination on the golden goal.


2023

1. The best performance of all time by a Canadian at this tournament, Connor Bédard quite literally won the Sweden and Slovakia games by himself and carried Canada on his back to a final. Dennis Williams played him heavy minutes in the last period and overtime against Slovakia and was rewarded

2. After Gaudreau’s disastrous effort in the opener against the Czechs, Milic came in and played extremely well. Standout performance against the US that was crucial to Canada winning that game.

3. A power play that was clicking at an extremely high rate, huge goal in the final.



The point I’m trying to make, apart from maybe 2015, you can’t really make the point "we took 2 lines of matchup players and it was the main factor in us winning". If you lose putting your best players forward like in 2021, fine, that can be accepted. But hopefully going forward more disasters like last year are avoided. There’s a lot of talent this year even with all the snubs, but I hope the put the best players in a position to win the games (IE McKenna) this year instead of relying on inferior players because of "grit"